I will be making a short power point that will feature pictures from the award show and other activities from my internship. I don't want to have a lot of words on it because I would rather say everything.

My internship has been such a great experience and I feel I have grown throughout the whole thing. i have learned how to stay positive during stressful times, which helps vibes in the office. I have been able to keep good communication with my family and friends because I am far away. Because I am so far a way I have learned how to deal with missing my friends and family, this gave me a taste of what college will be like. I have become more mature and able to take on lots of tasks going back and forth from one task to another with no problem. I have now understood what "real" winter is like and how to live in subzero conditions. It gave me a college like feel because I was in a place where I only knew my grandparents and I could not just go back home when my work day was over. I have realized that I don't want to go to college where it's cold for many months of the year. I am glad I got the opportunity to decide before I started applying to schools. It also showed me what a fun work place is like, I always enjoyed going to work because I knew it would be fun and not boring. Communication and collaboration are very import, without it the work place would not run smoothly. I didn't realize how much collaboration the chamber does with other businesses, there whole job is based on working and helping out with the community.

The work I have done during my time here at the chamber has been very helpful in many ways. I came at the busiest time of year for the chamber and I was able to help out with a lot of different things. Most of my work was helping getting ready for the Community Awards that happened this past Saturday. I worked on phone calls, mailing, deliveries, paperwork, decorating, creating a slide show the ran during the cocktail hour before the award show started and many other things in the office. All of the things were meaningful and significant to the chamber and to the award show itself. Everyday I was given different tasks that would help make the award show happen and run smoothly. All of my projects where given to me with the ability to change/simplify anything that would make it better or easier for the person who would need to work on it after I get done. I used many different skills depending on the kind of task I was assigned that day. For phone calls and when interacting with others I would be friendly and respectful, making sure I was listening and taking note on the important things. When doing office/paper work I would make sure I understood what I was suppose to do and how I should go about doing it before I got started, this minimized the amount of mistakes I made. With decorating I would ask Tina what she wanted and then add anything extra that I thought would make it better. Listening and communicating skills where extremely important for my internship, if I was not doing those things I would have made a lot more mistakes and would have slowed down the work seed. I learned how to stay calm when others are worried and stressed, I was able to share some breathing and relaxing stretching that we practiced whenever we needed a short break before diving back into hours of work. This was also a key skill because it helped the energy in the office.

My internship is very different from a school week. For starters I start work at 10 am and get off at 5pm with an hour lunch during the day. The timing is a lot different from school because I go in later and get home later, it's more of a "normal" work schedule I would say. I don't mid getting home at 5 because I don't really have anything else going on. During school I like getting home I enjoy getting off of school at an earlier time. The environment itself is completely different from school, I work in a small office where there is a Marin office to the right side of us and a gymnasium on the left side. I am always interacting with adults and elderly. At school I am with people my age, here I have only met two teenagers, which are my mentors children. The work is a lot different as well, my day is not schedule, plans always change and everyday is different. I don't have homework which is nice, when I leave at 5 all of my responsibilities are done with and don't start up again until 10 am the next day. I am working this Saturday for the community awards which is the biggest event of the year in Ionia. I really enjoy the independence that I am given, for example I like being able to take my lunch hour when ever I want. Some days I take it at 12 and other days I wait until 1:30 to go out. Its kind of the same as school because I get to eat at different restaurants/ stores. This internship has made me grow up a little, I have thousands of miles between me and my family/home. The distance gave me an idea of what college will be like and the weather has made me not want to go to a college where it snows and is cold for months. I feel like I have become more responsible with my time and my ability to go out of my comfort zone and do things I would normally not do. I am happy that I got to experience winter and what a real job is like.

Looking at Hannah,Noes, and Hana's blogs I got to see three very different internships. Hannah is working with businesses , Noes working with children, and Hana is working with health and wellness. They all seem to be enjoying their internships and I am excited to hear more about them when we all go back to school. After reading their blogs I learned some important skills for their kinds of jobs. Hannahs is being able to work well with others and asking for help when needed. Noes is being flexible because things never go as planned. Hanas is being collaborative with others when working on projects.

Some new habits that I have developed are consistently checking my email for any new information my mentor might have sent me. Being able to be flexible, meaning if I'm in the middle of a task that I was assigned but something new and more important came up I don't have any problem dropping what I'm doing to go work on the new task. These new skills will help me through out my life because it will keep me in the loop and always being ready for something new.

I have learned how to make a professional phone call to other local businesses. I have also learned how tot use Excel, I have had to use this a lot and I learned as I went but I have used it before just didn't know how to use it very well. I have also learned how to drive in the snow and how to get rid of ice covered drive ways. I have become more of a people person since I have been on my internship because I am in a town where I only know a few people. I have met many and have had to learn that not everyone will be as friendly as I am.

I am working on the Community Awards which is an event on January 25th. This means I have to make phone calls, send out mail/emails, go and visit different businesses, going to meetings, decorating widow displays. I also will be doing other things but they will be happening next week. After the event I will be helping get ready for the big expo happening in February. I am really excited for the event on the 25th because there will be a red carpet and you get to dress really nice. The only thing I’m nervous about is not having everything go as planned. Having me working om this project is giving them a little breathing room because I am able to do the little things and other simple tasks that need to be done. Because I have computer skills it has really be beneficial for me/my mentor. I also have taught them a few things on the computer which they are very thankful for.